The vertebrates, insects and flowering plants inhabiting lakes vary much according to latitude, and are comparatively well known to zoologists and botanists. The micro-fauna and flora have only recently been studied in detail, and we cannot yet be said to know much about tropical lakes in this respect. Mr James Murray, who has studied the Scottish lakes, records in over 400 Scottish lochs 724 species (the fauna including 447 species, all invertebrates, and the flora comprising 277 species) belonging to the following groups; the list must not be regarded as in any way complete:—Fauna.Flora.Mollusca7speciesPhanerogamia65speciesHydrachnida17”Equisetaceae1”Tardigrada30”Selaginellaceae1”Insecta7”Characeae6”Crustacea78”Musci18”Bryozoa7”Hepaticae2”Worms25”Florideae2”Rotifera181”Chlorophyceae142”Gastrotricha2”Bacillariaceae26”Coelenterata1”Myxophyceae10”Porifera1”Peridiniaceae4”Protozoa91”————————447”277”These organisms are found along the shores, in the deep waters, and in the surface waters of the lakes.Thelittoral regionis the most populous part of lakes; the existence of a rooted vegetation is only possible there, and this in turn supports a rich littoral fauna. The greater heat of the water along the margins also favours growth. The great majority of the species in Scottish lochs are met with in this region. Insect larvae of many kinds are found under stones or among weeds. Most of the Cladocera, and theCopepoda of the genusCyclops, and the Harpacticidae are only found in this region. Water-mites, nearly all the Rotifers, Gastrotricha, Tardigrada and Molluscs are found here, and Rhizopods are abundant. A large number of the littoral species in Loch Ness extends down to a depth of about 300 ft.The abyssal region, in Scottish lochs, lies, as a rule, deeper than 300 ft., and in this deep region a well-marked association of animals appears in the muds on the bottom, but none of them are peculiar to it: they all extend into the littoral zone, from which they were originally derived. In Loch Ness the following sparse population was recorded:—1 Mollusc:Pisidium pusillum(Gmel).3 Crustacea:Cyclops viridis, Jurine.Candona candida(Müll).Cypria ophthalmica, Jurine.3 Worms:Stylodrilus gabreteae, Vejd.Oligochaete, not determined.Automolos morgiensis(Du Plessis).1 Insect:Chironomus(larva).Infusoria:Several, ectoparasites onPisidiumandCyclops, not determined.In addition, the following were found casually at great depths in Loch Ness:Hydra,Limnaea peregra,Proales daphnicolaandLynceus affinis.Thepelagic regionof the Scottish lakes is occupied by numerous microscopic organisms, belonging to the Zooplankton and Phytoplankton. Of the former group 30 species belonging to the Crustacea, Rotifera and Protozoa were recorded in Loch Ness. Belonging to the second group 150 species were recorded, of which 120 were Desmids. Some of these species of plankton organisms are almost universal in the Scottish lochs, while others are quite local. Some of the species occur all the year through, while others have only been recorded in summer or in winter. The great development of Algae in the surface waters, called “flowering of the water” (Wasserblüthe), was observed in August in Loch Lomond; a distinct “flowering,” due to Chlorophyceae, has been observed in shallow lochs as early as July. It is most common in August and September, but has also been observed in winter.The plankton animals which are dominant or common, both over Scotland and the rest of Europe, are:—Diaptomus gracilis.Daphnia kyalina.Diaphanosoma brachyurum.Leptodora kindtii.Conochilus unicornis.Asplanchna priodonta.Polyarthra platyptera.Anuraea cochlearis.Notholca longispina.Ceratium hirundinella.Asterionella.All of these, according to Dr Lund, belong to the general plankton association of the European plain, or are even cosmopolitan.The Scottish plankton on the whole differs from the plankton of the central European plateau, and from the cosmopolitan fresh-water plankton, in the extraordinary richness of the Phytoplankton in species of Desmids, in the conspicuous arctic element among the Crustacea, in the absence or comparative rarity of the species commonest in the general European plankton. Another peculiarity is the local distribution of some of the Crustacea and many of the Desmids.The derivation of the whole lacustrine population of the Scottish lochs does not seem to present any difficulty. The abyssal forms have been traced to the littoral zone without any perceptible modifications. The plankton organisms are a mingling of European and arctic species. The cosmopolitan species may enter the lochs by ordinary migration. It is probable that if the whole plankton could be annihilated, it would be replaced by ordinary migration within a few years. The eggs and spores of many species can be dried up without injury, and may be carried through the air as dust from one lake to another; others, which would not bear desiccation, might be carried in mud adhering to the feet of aquatic birds and in various other ways. The arctic species may be survivors from a period when arctic conditions prevailed over a great part of Europe. What are known as “relicts” of a marine fauna have not been found in the Scottish fresh-water lochs.It is somewhat remarkable that none of the organisms living in fresh-water lochs has been observed to exhibit the phenomenon of phosphorescence, although similar organisms in the salt-water lochs a few miles distant exhibit brilliant phosphorescence. At similar depths in the sea-lochs there is usually a great abundance of life when compared with that found in fresh-water lochs.
The vertebrates, insects and flowering plants inhabiting lakes vary much according to latitude, and are comparatively well known to zoologists and botanists. The micro-fauna and flora have only recently been studied in detail, and we cannot yet be said to know much about tropical lakes in this respect. Mr James Murray, who has studied the Scottish lakes, records in over 400 Scottish lochs 724 species (the fauna including 447 species, all invertebrates, and the flora comprising 277 species) belonging to the following groups; the list must not be regarded as in any way complete:—
These organisms are found along the shores, in the deep waters, and in the surface waters of the lakes.
Thelittoral regionis the most populous part of lakes; the existence of a rooted vegetation is only possible there, and this in turn supports a rich littoral fauna. The greater heat of the water along the margins also favours growth. The great majority of the species in Scottish lochs are met with in this region. Insect larvae of many kinds are found under stones or among weeds. Most of the Cladocera, and theCopepoda of the genusCyclops, and the Harpacticidae are only found in this region. Water-mites, nearly all the Rotifers, Gastrotricha, Tardigrada and Molluscs are found here, and Rhizopods are abundant. A large number of the littoral species in Loch Ness extends down to a depth of about 300 ft.
The abyssal region, in Scottish lochs, lies, as a rule, deeper than 300 ft., and in this deep region a well-marked association of animals appears in the muds on the bottom, but none of them are peculiar to it: they all extend into the littoral zone, from which they were originally derived. In Loch Ness the following sparse population was recorded:—
In addition, the following were found casually at great depths in Loch Ness:Hydra,Limnaea peregra,Proales daphnicolaandLynceus affinis.
Thepelagic regionof the Scottish lakes is occupied by numerous microscopic organisms, belonging to the Zooplankton and Phytoplankton. Of the former group 30 species belonging to the Crustacea, Rotifera and Protozoa were recorded in Loch Ness. Belonging to the second group 150 species were recorded, of which 120 were Desmids. Some of these species of plankton organisms are almost universal in the Scottish lochs, while others are quite local. Some of the species occur all the year through, while others have only been recorded in summer or in winter. The great development of Algae in the surface waters, called “flowering of the water” (Wasserblüthe), was observed in August in Loch Lomond; a distinct “flowering,” due to Chlorophyceae, has been observed in shallow lochs as early as July. It is most common in August and September, but has also been observed in winter.
The plankton animals which are dominant or common, both over Scotland and the rest of Europe, are:—
Diaptomus gracilis.Daphnia kyalina.Diaphanosoma brachyurum.Leptodora kindtii.Conochilus unicornis.Asplanchna priodonta.Polyarthra platyptera.Anuraea cochlearis.Notholca longispina.Ceratium hirundinella.Asterionella.
Diaptomus gracilis.
Daphnia kyalina.
Diaphanosoma brachyurum.
Leptodora kindtii.
Conochilus unicornis.
Asplanchna priodonta.
Polyarthra platyptera.
Anuraea cochlearis.
Notholca longispina.
Ceratium hirundinella.
Asterionella.
All of these, according to Dr Lund, belong to the general plankton association of the European plain, or are even cosmopolitan.
The Scottish plankton on the whole differs from the plankton of the central European plateau, and from the cosmopolitan fresh-water plankton, in the extraordinary richness of the Phytoplankton in species of Desmids, in the conspicuous arctic element among the Crustacea, in the absence or comparative rarity of the species commonest in the general European plankton. Another peculiarity is the local distribution of some of the Crustacea and many of the Desmids.
The derivation of the whole lacustrine population of the Scottish lochs does not seem to present any difficulty. The abyssal forms have been traced to the littoral zone without any perceptible modifications. The plankton organisms are a mingling of European and arctic species. The cosmopolitan species may enter the lochs by ordinary migration. It is probable that if the whole plankton could be annihilated, it would be replaced by ordinary migration within a few years. The eggs and spores of many species can be dried up without injury, and may be carried through the air as dust from one lake to another; others, which would not bear desiccation, might be carried in mud adhering to the feet of aquatic birds and in various other ways. The arctic species may be survivors from a period when arctic conditions prevailed over a great part of Europe. What are known as “relicts” of a marine fauna have not been found in the Scottish fresh-water lochs.
It is somewhat remarkable that none of the organisms living in fresh-water lochs has been observed to exhibit the phenomenon of phosphorescence, although similar organisms in the salt-water lochs a few miles distant exhibit brilliant phosphorescence. At similar depths in the sea-lochs there is usually a great abundance of life when compared with that found in fresh-water lochs.
Length, Depth, Area and Volume of Lakes.—In the following table will be found the length, depth, area and volume of some of the principal lakes of the world.1Sir John Murray estimates The volume of water in the 560 Scottish lochs recently surveyed at 7 cub. m., and the approximate volume of water in all the lakes of the world at about 2000 cub. m., so that this last number is but a small fraction of the volume of the ocean, which he previously estimated at 324 million cub. m. It may be recalled that the total rainfall on the land of the globe is estimated at 29,350 cub. m., and the total discharge from the rivers of the globe at 6524 cub. m.
British Lakes
European Continental Lakes
African Lakes
Asiatic Lakes
American Lakes
New Zealand Lakes
Authorities.—F. A. Forel, “Handbuch der Seenkunde: allgemeine Limnologie,”Bibliothek geogr. Handbücher(Stuttgart, 1901),Le Léman, monographie limnologique(3 vols., Lausanne, 1892-1901); A. Delebecque,Les Lacs français, text and plates (Paris, 1898); H. R. Mill, “Bathymetrical Survey of the English Lakes,”Geogr. Journ.vol. vi. pp. 46 and 135 (1895); Jehu, “Bathymetrical and Geological Study of the Lakes of Snowdonia,”Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin.vol. xl. p. 419 (1902); Sir John Murray and Laurence Pullar, “Bathymetrical Survey of the Freshwater Lochs of Scotland,”Geogr. Journ.(1900 to 1908, re-issued in six volumes, Edinburgh, 1910); W. Halbfass, “Die Morphometrie der europäischen Seen,”Zeitschr. Gesell. Erdkunde Berlin(Jahrg. 1903, p. 592; 1904, p. 204); I. C. Russell,Lakes of North America(Boston and London, 1895); O. Zacharias, “Forschungsberichte aus der biologischen Station zu Plön” (Stuttgart); F. E. Bourcart,Les Lacs alpins suisses: étude chimique et physique(Geneva, 1906); G. P. Magrini,Limnologia(Milan, 1907).
Authorities.—F. A. Forel, “Handbuch der Seenkunde: allgemeine Limnologie,”Bibliothek geogr. Handbücher(Stuttgart, 1901),Le Léman, monographie limnologique(3 vols., Lausanne, 1892-1901); A. Delebecque,Les Lacs français, text and plates (Paris, 1898); H. R. Mill, “Bathymetrical Survey of the English Lakes,”Geogr. Journ.vol. vi. pp. 46 and 135 (1895); Jehu, “Bathymetrical and Geological Study of the Lakes of Snowdonia,”Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin.vol. xl. p. 419 (1902); Sir John Murray and Laurence Pullar, “Bathymetrical Survey of the Freshwater Lochs of Scotland,”Geogr. Journ.(1900 to 1908, re-issued in six volumes, Edinburgh, 1910); W. Halbfass, “Die Morphometrie der europäischen Seen,”Zeitschr. Gesell. Erdkunde Berlin(Jahrg. 1903, p. 592; 1904, p. 204); I. C. Russell,Lakes of North America(Boston and London, 1895); O. Zacharias, “Forschungsberichte aus der biologischen Station zu Plön” (Stuttgart); F. E. Bourcart,Les Lacs alpins suisses: étude chimique et physique(Geneva, 1906); G. P. Magrini,Limnologia(Milan, 1907).
(J. Mu.)
1Divergence between certain of these figures and those quoted elsewhere in this work may be accounted for by the slightly different results arrived at by various authorities.
1Divergence between certain of these figures and those quoted elsewhere in this work may be accounted for by the slightly different results arrived at by various authorities.
LAKE CHARLES,a city of Louisiana, U.S.A., capital of Calcasieu Parish, 30 m. from the Gulf of Mexico and about 218 m. (by rail) W. of New Orleans. Pop. (1889) 838, (1890) 3442, (1900) 6680 (2407 negroes); (1910) 11,449. It is served by the Louisiana & Texas (Southern Pacific System), the St Louis, Watkins & Gulf, the Louisiana & Pacific and the Kansas City Southern railways. The city is charmingly situated on the shore of Lake Charles, and on the Calcasieu river, which with some dredging can be made navigable for large vessels for 132 m. from the Gulf. It is a winter resort. Among the principal buildings are a Carnegie library, the city hall, the Government building, the court house, St Patrick’s sanatorium, the masonic temple and the Elks’ club. Lake Charles is in the prairie region of southern Louisiana, to the N. of which, covering a large part of the state, are magnificent forests of long-leaf pine, and lesser lowland growths of oak, ash, magnolia, cypress and other valuable timber. The Watkins railway extending to the N.E. and the Kansas City Southern extending to the N.W. have opened up the very best of the forest. The country to the S. and W. is largely given over to rice culture. Lake Charles is the chief centre of lumber manufacture in the state, and has rice mills, car shops and an important trade in wool. Ten miles W. are sulphur mines (product in 1907 about 362,000 tons), which with those of Sicily produce a large part of the total product of the world. Jennings, about 34 m. to the E., is the centre of oil fields, once very productive but now of diminishing importance. Welsh, 23 m. E., is the centre of a newer field; and others lie to the N. Lake Charles was settled about 1852, largely by people from Iowa and neighbouring states, was incorporated as a town in 1857 under the name of Charleston and again in 1867 under its present name, and was chartered as a city in 1886. The city suffered severely by fire in April 1910.
LAKE CITY,a town and the county-seat of Columbia county, Florida, U.S.A., 59 m. by rail W. by S. of Jacksonville. Pop. (1900) 4013, of whom 2159 were negroes; (1905) 6509; (1910) 5032. Lake City is served by the Atlantic Coast Line, the Seaboard Air Line and the Georgia Southern & Florida railways. There are ten small lakes in the neighbourhood, and the town is a winter and health resort. It is the seat of Columbia College (Baptist, 1907); the Florida Agricultural College was opened here in 1883, became the university of Florida in 1903, and in 1905 was abolished by the Buckman Law. Vegetables and fruits grown for the northern markets, sea-island cotton and tobacco are important products of the surrounding country, and Lake City has some trade in cotton, lumber, phosphates and turpentine. The town was first settled about 1826 as Alligator; it was incorporated in 1854; adopted the present name in 1859; and in 1901, with an enlarged area, was re-incorporated.
LAKE DISTRICT,in England, a district containing all the principal English lakes, and variously termed the Lake Country, Lakeland and “the Lakes.” It falls within the north-western counties of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire (Furness district), about one-half being within the first of these. Although celebrated far outside the confines of Great Britain as a district of remarkable and strongly individual physical beauty, its area is only some 700 sq. m., a circle with radius of 15 m. from the central point covering practically the whole. Within this circle, besides the largest lake, Windermere, is the highest point in England, Scafell Pike; yet Windermere is but 10½ m. in length, and covers an area of 5.69 sq. m., while Scafell Pike is only 3210 ft. in height. But the lakes show a wonderful variety of character, from open expanse and steep rock-bound shores to picturesque island-groups and soft wooded banks; while the mountains have always a remarkable dignity, less from the profile of their summits than from the bold sweeping lines of their flanks, unbroken by vegetation, and often culminating in sheer cliffs or crags. At their feet, the flat green valley floors of the higher elevations give place in the lower parts to lovely woods. The streams are swift and clear, and numerous small waterfalls are characteristic of the district. To the north, west and south, a flat coastal belt, bordering the Irish Sea, with its inlets Morecambe Bay and Solway Firth, and broadest in the north, marks off the Lake District, while to the east the valleys of the Eden and the Lune divide it from the Pennine mountain system. Geologically, too, it is individual. Its centre is of volcanic rocks, complex in character, while the Coal-measures and New Red Sandstone appear round the edges. The district as a whole is grooved by a main depression, running from north to south along the valleys of St John, Thirlmere, Grasmere and Windermere, surmounting a pass (Dunmail Raise) of only 783 ft.; while a secondary depression, in the same direction, runs along Derwentwater, Borrowdale, Wasdale and Wastwater, but here Sty Head Pass, between Borrowdale and Wasdale, rises to 1600 ft. The centre of the 15-m. radius lies on the lesser heights between Langstrath and Dunmail Raise, which may, however, be the crown of an ancient dome of rocks, “the dissected skeleton of which, worn by the warfare of air and rainand ice, now alone remains” (Dr H. R. Mill, “Bathymetrical Survey of the English Lakes,”Geographical Journal, vi. 48). The principal features of the district may be indicated by following this circle round from north, by west, south and east.
The river Derwent (q.v.), rising in the tarns and “gills” or “ghylls” (small streams running in deeply-grooved clefts) north of Sty Head Pass and the Scafell mass flows north through the wooded Borrowdale and forms Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite. These two lakes are in a class apart from all the rest, being broader for their length, and quite shallow (about 18 ft. average and 70 ft. maximum), as distinct from the long, narrow and deep troughs occupied by the other chief lakes, which average from 40 to 135 ft. deep. Derwentwater (q.v.), studded with many islands, is perhaps the most beautiful of all. Borrowdale is joined on the east by the bare wild dale of Langstrath, and the Greta joins the Derwent immediately below Derwentwater; the town of Keswick lying near the junction. Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite occupy a single depression, a flat alluvial plain separating them. From Seatoller in Borrowdale a road traverses Honister Pass (1100 ft.), whence it descends westward, beneath the majestic Honister Crags, where green slate is quarried, into the valley containing Buttermere (94 ft. max. depth) and Crummock Water (144 ft.), drained by the Cocker. Between this and the Derwent valley the principal height is Grasmoor (2791 ft.); southward a steep narrow ridge (High Style, 2643) divides it from Ennerdale, containing Ennerdale Water (148 ft. max. depth), which is fed by the Liza and drained by the Ehen. A splendid range separates this dale from Wasdale and its tributary Mosedale, including Great Gable (2949 ft.), Pillar (2927), with the precipitous Pillar Rock on the Ennerdale flank and Steeple (2746). Wasdale Head, between Gable and the Scafell range, is peculiarly grand, with dark grey screes and black crags frowning above its narrow bottom. On this side of Gable is the fine detached rock, Napes Needle. Wastwater, 3 m. in length, is the deepest lake of all (258 ft.), its floor, like those of Windermere and Ullswater, sinking below sea-level. Its east shore consists of a great range of screes. East of Wasdale lies the range of Scafell (q.v.), its chief points being Scafell (3162 ft.), Scafell Pike (3210), Lingmell (2649) and Great End (2984), while the line is continued over Esk Hause Pass (2490) along a fine line of heights (Bow Fell, 2960; Crinkle Crags, 2816), to embrace the head of Eskdale. The line then descends to Wrynose Pass (1270 ft.), from which the Duddon runs south through a vale of peculiar richness in its lower parts; while the range continues south to culminate in the Old Man of Coniston (2633) with the splendid Dow Crags above Goats Water. The pleasant vale of Yewdale drains south to Coniston Lake (5½ m. long, 184 ft. max. depth), east of which a lower, well-wooded tract, containing two beautiful lesser lakes, Tarn Hows and Esthwaite Water, extends to Windermere (q.v.). This lake collects waters by the Brathay from Langdale, the head of which, between Bow Fell and Langdale Pikes (2401 ft.), is very fine; and by the Rothay from Dunmail Raise and the small lakes of Grasmere and Rydal Water, embowered in woods. East of the Rothay valley and Thirlmere lies the mountain mass including Helvellyn (3118 ft.), Fairfield (2863) and other points, with magnificent crags at several places on the eastern side towards Grisedale and Patterdale. These dales drain to Ullswater (205 ft. max., second to Windermere in area), and so north-east to the Eden. To the east and south-east lies the ridge named High Street (2663 ft.), from the Roman road still traceable from south to north along its summit, and sloping east again to the sequestered Hawes Water (103 ft. max.), a curiously shaped lake nearly divided by the delta of the Measand Beck. There remains the Thirlmere valley. Thirlmere itself was raised in level, and adapted by means of a dam at the north end, as a reservoir for the water-supply of Manchester in 1890-1894. It drains north by St John’s Vale into the Greta, north of which again rises a mountain-group of which the chief summits are Saddleback or Blencathra (2847 ft.) and the graceful peak of Skiddaw (3054). The most noteworthy waterfalls are—Scale Force (Dano-Norwegianfors,foss), beside Crummock, Lodore near Derwentwater, Dungeon Gill Force, beside Langdale, Dalegarth Force in Eskdale, Aira near Ullswater, sung by Wordsworth, Stock Gill Force and Rydal Falls near Ambleside.The principal centres in the Lake District are Keswick (Derwentwater), Ambleside, Bowness, Windermere and Lakeside (Windermere), Coniston and Boot (Eskdale), all of which, except Ambleside and Bowness (which nearly joins Windermere) are accessible by rail. The considerable village of Grasmere lies beautifully at the head of the lake of that name; and above Esthwaite is the small town of Hawkshead, with an ancient church, and picturesque houses curiously built on the hill-slope and sometimes spanning the streets. There are regular steamer services on Windermere and Ullswater. Coaches and cars traverse the main roads during the summer, but many of the finest dales and passes are accessible only on foot or by ponies. All the mountains offer easy routes to pedestrians, but some of them, as Scafell, Pillar, Gable (Napes Needle), Pavey Ark above Langdale and Dow Crags near Coniston, also afford ascents for experienced climbers.This mountainous district, having the sea to the west, records an unusually heavy rainfall. Near Seathwaite, below Styhead Pass, the largest annual rainfall in the British Isles is recorded, the average (1870-1899) being 133.53 in., while 173.7 was measured in 1903 and 243.98 in. in 1872. At Keswick the annual mean is 60.02, at Grasmere about 80 ins. The months of maximum rainfall at Seathwaite are November, December and January and September.Fish taken in the lakes include perch, pike, char and trout in Windermere, Ennerdale, Bassenthwaite, Derwentwater, &c., and the gwyniad or fresh-water herring in Ullswater. The industries of the Lake District include slate quarrying and some lead and zinc mining, and weaving, bobbin-making and pencil-making.Setting aside London and Edinburgh, no locality in the British Isles is so intimately associated with the history of English literature as the Lake District. In point of time the poet whose name is first connected with the region is Gray, who wrote a journal of his tour in 1769. But it was Wordsworth, a native of Cumberland, born on the outskirts of the Lake District itself, who really made it a Mecca for lovers of English poetry. Out of his long life of eighty years, sixty were spent amid its lakes and mountains, first as a schoolboy at Hawkshead, and afterwards as a resident at Grasmere (1799-1813) and Rydal Mount (1813-1850). In the churchyard of Grasmere the poet and his wife lie buried; and very near to them are the remains of Hartley Coleridge (son of the poet), who himself lived many years at Keswick, Ambleside and Grasmere. Southey, the friend of Wordsworth, was a resident of Keswick for forty years (1803-1843), and was buried in Crosthwaite churchyard. Samuel Taylor Coleridge lived some time at Keswick, and also with the Wordsworths at Grasmere. From 1807 to 1815 Christopher North (John Wilson) was settled at Windermere. De Quincey spent the greater part of the years 1809 to 1828 at Grasmere, in the first cottage which Wordsworth had inhabited. Ambleside, or its environs, was also the place of residence of Dr Arnold (of Rugby), who spent there the vacations of the last ten years of his life; and of Harriet Martineau, who built herself a house there in 1845. At Keswick Mrs Lynn Linton was born in 1822. Brantwood, a house beside Coniston Lake, was the home of Ruskin during the last years of his life. In addition to these residents or natives of the locality, Shelley, Scott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Clough, Crabb Robinson, Carlyle, Keats, Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, Mrs Hemans, Gerald Massey and others of less reputation made longer or shorter visits, or were bound by ties of friendship with the poets already mentioned. The Vale of St John, near Keswick, recalls Scott’sBridal of Triermain. But there is a deeper connexion than this between the Lake District and English letters. German literature tells of several literary schools, or groups of writers animated by the same ideas, and working in the spirit of the same principles and by the same poetic methods. The most notable instance—indeed it is almost the only instance—of the kind in English literature is the Lake School of Poets. Of this school the acknowledged head and founder was Wordsworth, and the tenets it professed are those laid down by the poet himself in the famous preface to the edition ofThe Lyrical Balladswhich he published in 1800. Wordsworth’s theories of poetry—the objects best suited for poetic treatment, the characteristics of such treatment and the choice of diction suitable for the purpose—may be said to have grown out of the soil and substance of the lakes and mountains, and out of the homely lives of the people, of Cumberland and Westmoreland.SeeCumberland,Lancashire,Westmorland. The following is a selection from the literature of the subject: Harriet Martineau,The English Lakes(Windermere, 1858); Mrs Lynn Linton,The Lake Country(London, 1864); E. Waugh,Rambles in the Lake Country(1861) andIn the Lake Country(1880); W. Knight,Through the Wordsworth Country(London, 1890); H. D. Rawnsley,Literary Associations of the English Lakes(2 vols., Glasgow, 1894) andLife and Nature of the English Lakes(Glasgow, 1899); Stopford Brooke,Dove Cottage, Wordsworth’s Home from 1800 to 1808; A. G. Bradley,The Lake District, its Highways and Byeways(London, 1901); Sir John Harwood,History of the Thirlmere Water Scheme(1895); for mountain-climbing, Col. J. Brown,Mountain Ascents in Westmorland and Cumberland(London, 1888); Haskett-Smith,Climbing in the British Isles, part, i.; Owen G. Jones,Rock-climbing in the English Lake District, 2nd ed. by W. M. Crook (Keswick, 1900).
The river Derwent (q.v.), rising in the tarns and “gills” or “ghylls” (small streams running in deeply-grooved clefts) north of Sty Head Pass and the Scafell mass flows north through the wooded Borrowdale and forms Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite. These two lakes are in a class apart from all the rest, being broader for their length, and quite shallow (about 18 ft. average and 70 ft. maximum), as distinct from the long, narrow and deep troughs occupied by the other chief lakes, which average from 40 to 135 ft. deep. Derwentwater (q.v.), studded with many islands, is perhaps the most beautiful of all. Borrowdale is joined on the east by the bare wild dale of Langstrath, and the Greta joins the Derwent immediately below Derwentwater; the town of Keswick lying near the junction. Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite occupy a single depression, a flat alluvial plain separating them. From Seatoller in Borrowdale a road traverses Honister Pass (1100 ft.), whence it descends westward, beneath the majestic Honister Crags, where green slate is quarried, into the valley containing Buttermere (94 ft. max. depth) and Crummock Water (144 ft.), drained by the Cocker. Between this and the Derwent valley the principal height is Grasmoor (2791 ft.); southward a steep narrow ridge (High Style, 2643) divides it from Ennerdale, containing Ennerdale Water (148 ft. max. depth), which is fed by the Liza and drained by the Ehen. A splendid range separates this dale from Wasdale and its tributary Mosedale, including Great Gable (2949 ft.), Pillar (2927), with the precipitous Pillar Rock on the Ennerdale flank and Steeple (2746). Wasdale Head, between Gable and the Scafell range, is peculiarly grand, with dark grey screes and black crags frowning above its narrow bottom. On this side of Gable is the fine detached rock, Napes Needle. Wastwater, 3 m. in length, is the deepest lake of all (258 ft.), its floor, like those of Windermere and Ullswater, sinking below sea-level. Its east shore consists of a great range of screes. East of Wasdale lies the range of Scafell (q.v.), its chief points being Scafell (3162 ft.), Scafell Pike (3210), Lingmell (2649) and Great End (2984), while the line is continued over Esk Hause Pass (2490) along a fine line of heights (Bow Fell, 2960; Crinkle Crags, 2816), to embrace the head of Eskdale. The line then descends to Wrynose Pass (1270 ft.), from which the Duddon runs south through a vale of peculiar richness in its lower parts; while the range continues south to culminate in the Old Man of Coniston (2633) with the splendid Dow Crags above Goats Water. The pleasant vale of Yewdale drains south to Coniston Lake (5½ m. long, 184 ft. max. depth), east of which a lower, well-wooded tract, containing two beautiful lesser lakes, Tarn Hows and Esthwaite Water, extends to Windermere (q.v.). This lake collects waters by the Brathay from Langdale, the head of which, between Bow Fell and Langdale Pikes (2401 ft.), is very fine; and by the Rothay from Dunmail Raise and the small lakes of Grasmere and Rydal Water, embowered in woods. East of the Rothay valley and Thirlmere lies the mountain mass including Helvellyn (3118 ft.), Fairfield (2863) and other points, with magnificent crags at several places on the eastern side towards Grisedale and Patterdale. These dales drain to Ullswater (205 ft. max., second to Windermere in area), and so north-east to the Eden. To the east and south-east lies the ridge named High Street (2663 ft.), from the Roman road still traceable from south to north along its summit, and sloping east again to the sequestered Hawes Water (103 ft. max.), a curiously shaped lake nearly divided by the delta of the Measand Beck. There remains the Thirlmere valley. Thirlmere itself was raised in level, and adapted by means of a dam at the north end, as a reservoir for the water-supply of Manchester in 1890-1894. It drains north by St John’s Vale into the Greta, north of which again rises a mountain-group of which the chief summits are Saddleback or Blencathra (2847 ft.) and the graceful peak of Skiddaw (3054). The most noteworthy waterfalls are—Scale Force (Dano-Norwegianfors,foss), beside Crummock, Lodore near Derwentwater, Dungeon Gill Force, beside Langdale, Dalegarth Force in Eskdale, Aira near Ullswater, sung by Wordsworth, Stock Gill Force and Rydal Falls near Ambleside.
The principal centres in the Lake District are Keswick (Derwentwater), Ambleside, Bowness, Windermere and Lakeside (Windermere), Coniston and Boot (Eskdale), all of which, except Ambleside and Bowness (which nearly joins Windermere) are accessible by rail. The considerable village of Grasmere lies beautifully at the head of the lake of that name; and above Esthwaite is the small town of Hawkshead, with an ancient church, and picturesque houses curiously built on the hill-slope and sometimes spanning the streets. There are regular steamer services on Windermere and Ullswater. Coaches and cars traverse the main roads during the summer, but many of the finest dales and passes are accessible only on foot or by ponies. All the mountains offer easy routes to pedestrians, but some of them, as Scafell, Pillar, Gable (Napes Needle), Pavey Ark above Langdale and Dow Crags near Coniston, also afford ascents for experienced climbers.
This mountainous district, having the sea to the west, records an unusually heavy rainfall. Near Seathwaite, below Styhead Pass, the largest annual rainfall in the British Isles is recorded, the average (1870-1899) being 133.53 in., while 173.7 was measured in 1903 and 243.98 in. in 1872. At Keswick the annual mean is 60.02, at Grasmere about 80 ins. The months of maximum rainfall at Seathwaite are November, December and January and September.
Fish taken in the lakes include perch, pike, char and trout in Windermere, Ennerdale, Bassenthwaite, Derwentwater, &c., and the gwyniad or fresh-water herring in Ullswater. The industries of the Lake District include slate quarrying and some lead and zinc mining, and weaving, bobbin-making and pencil-making.
Setting aside London and Edinburgh, no locality in the British Isles is so intimately associated with the history of English literature as the Lake District. In point of time the poet whose name is first connected with the region is Gray, who wrote a journal of his tour in 1769. But it was Wordsworth, a native of Cumberland, born on the outskirts of the Lake District itself, who really made it a Mecca for lovers of English poetry. Out of his long life of eighty years, sixty were spent amid its lakes and mountains, first as a schoolboy at Hawkshead, and afterwards as a resident at Grasmere (1799-1813) and Rydal Mount (1813-1850). In the churchyard of Grasmere the poet and his wife lie buried; and very near to them are the remains of Hartley Coleridge (son of the poet), who himself lived many years at Keswick, Ambleside and Grasmere. Southey, the friend of Wordsworth, was a resident of Keswick for forty years (1803-1843), and was buried in Crosthwaite churchyard. Samuel Taylor Coleridge lived some time at Keswick, and also with the Wordsworths at Grasmere. From 1807 to 1815 Christopher North (John Wilson) was settled at Windermere. De Quincey spent the greater part of the years 1809 to 1828 at Grasmere, in the first cottage which Wordsworth had inhabited. Ambleside, or its environs, was also the place of residence of Dr Arnold (of Rugby), who spent there the vacations of the last ten years of his life; and of Harriet Martineau, who built herself a house there in 1845. At Keswick Mrs Lynn Linton was born in 1822. Brantwood, a house beside Coniston Lake, was the home of Ruskin during the last years of his life. In addition to these residents or natives of the locality, Shelley, Scott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Clough, Crabb Robinson, Carlyle, Keats, Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, Mrs Hemans, Gerald Massey and others of less reputation made longer or shorter visits, or were bound by ties of friendship with the poets already mentioned. The Vale of St John, near Keswick, recalls Scott’sBridal of Triermain. But there is a deeper connexion than this between the Lake District and English letters. German literature tells of several literary schools, or groups of writers animated by the same ideas, and working in the spirit of the same principles and by the same poetic methods. The most notable instance—indeed it is almost the only instance—of the kind in English literature is the Lake School of Poets. Of this school the acknowledged head and founder was Wordsworth, and the tenets it professed are those laid down by the poet himself in the famous preface to the edition ofThe Lyrical Balladswhich he published in 1800. Wordsworth’s theories of poetry—the objects best suited for poetic treatment, the characteristics of such treatment and the choice of diction suitable for the purpose—may be said to have grown out of the soil and substance of the lakes and mountains, and out of the homely lives of the people, of Cumberland and Westmoreland.
SeeCumberland,Lancashire,Westmorland. The following is a selection from the literature of the subject: Harriet Martineau,The English Lakes(Windermere, 1858); Mrs Lynn Linton,The Lake Country(London, 1864); E. Waugh,Rambles in the Lake Country(1861) andIn the Lake Country(1880); W. Knight,Through the Wordsworth Country(London, 1890); H. D. Rawnsley,Literary Associations of the English Lakes(2 vols., Glasgow, 1894) andLife and Nature of the English Lakes(Glasgow, 1899); Stopford Brooke,Dove Cottage, Wordsworth’s Home from 1800 to 1808; A. G. Bradley,The Lake District, its Highways and Byeways(London, 1901); Sir John Harwood,History of the Thirlmere Water Scheme(1895); for mountain-climbing, Col. J. Brown,Mountain Ascents in Westmorland and Cumberland(London, 1888); Haskett-Smith,Climbing in the British Isles, part, i.; Owen G. Jones,Rock-climbing in the English Lake District, 2nd ed. by W. M. Crook (Keswick, 1900).
LAKE DWELLINGS,the term employed in archaeology for habitations constructed, not on the dry land, but within the margins of lakes or creeks at some distance from the shore.
The villages of the Guajiros in the Gulf of Maracaibo are described by Goering as composed of houses with low sloping roofs perched on lofty piles and connected with each other by bridges of planks. Each house consisted of two apartments; the floor was formed of split stems of trees set close together and covered with mats; they were reached from the shore by dug-out canoes poled over the shallow waters, and a notched tree trunk served as a ladder. The custom is also common in the estuaries of the Orinoco and Amazon. A similar system prevails in New Guinea. Dumont d’Urville describes four such villages in the Bay of Dorei, containing from eight to fifteen blocks or clusters of houses, each block separately built on piles,and consisting of a row of distinct dwellings. C. D. Cameron describes three villages thus built on piles in Lake Mohrya, or Moria, in Central Africa, the motive here being to prevent surprise by bands of slave-catchers. Similar constructions have been described by travellers, among the Dyaks of Borneo, in Celebes, in the Caroline Islands, on the Gold Coast of Africa, and in other places.
Hippocrates, writing in the 5th centuryB.C., says of the people of the Phasis that their country is hot and marshy and subject to frequent inundations, and that they live in houses of timber and reeds constructed in the midst of the waters, and use boats of a single tree trunk. Herodotus, writing also in the 5th centuryB.C., describes the people of Lake Prasias as living in houses constructed on platforms supported on piles in the middle of the lake, which are approached from the land by a single narrow bridge. Abulfeda the geographer, writing in the 13th century, notices the fact that part of the Apamaean Lake was inhabited by Christian fishermen who lived on the lake in wooden huts built on piles, and Sir John Lubbock (Lord Avebury) mentions that the Rumelian fishermen on Lake Prasias “still inhabit wooden cottages built over the water, as in the time of Herodotus.”
The records of the wars in Ireland in the 16th century show that the petty chieftains of that time had their defensive strongholds constructed in the “freshwater lochs” of the country, and there is record evidence of a similar system in the western parts of Scotland. The archaeological researches of the past fifty years have shown that such artificial constructions in lakes were used as defensive dwellings by the Celtic people from an early period to medieval times (seeCrannog). Similar researches have also established the fact that in prehistoric times nearly all the lakes of Switzerland, and many in the adjoining countries—in Savoy and the north of Italy, in Austria and Hungary and in Mecklenburg and Pomerania—were peopled, so to speak, by lake-dwelling communities, living in villages constructed on platforms supported by piles at varying distances from the shores. The principal groups are those in the Lakes of Bourget, Geneva, Neuchâtel, Bienne, Zürich and Constance lying to the north of the Alps, and in the Lakes Maggiore, Varese, Iseo and Garda lying to the south of that mountain range. Many smaller lakes, however, contain them, and they are also found in peat moors on the sites of ancient lakes now drained or silted up, as at Laibach in Carniola. In some of the larger lakes the number of settlements has been very great. Fifty are enumerated in the Lake of Neuchâtel, thirty-two in the Lake of Constance, twenty-four in the Lake of Geneva, and twenty in the Lake of Bienne. The site of the lake dwelling of Wangen, in the Untersee, Lake of Constance, forms a parallelogram more than 700 paces in length by about 120 paces in breadth. The settlement at Morges, one of the largest in the Lake of Geneva, is 1200 ft. long by 150 ft. in breadth. The settlement of Sutz, one of the largest in the Lake of Bienne, extends over six acres, and was connected with the shore by a gangway nearly 100 yds. long and about 40 ft. wide.
The substructure which supported the platforms on which the dwellings were placed was most frequently of piles driven into the bottom of the lake. Less frequently it consisted of a stack of brushwood or fascines built up from the bottom and strengthened by stakes penetrating the mass so as to keep it from spreading. When piles were used they were the rough stems of trees of a length proportioned to the depth of the water, sharpened sometimes by fire and at other times chopped to a point by hatchets. On their level tops the beams supporting the platforms were laid and fastened by wooden pins, or inserted in mortices cut in the heads of the piles. In some cases the whole construction was further steadied and strengthened by cross beams, notched into the piles below the supports of the platform. The platform itself was usually composed of rough layers of unbarked stems, but occasionally it was formed of boards split from larger stems. When the mud was too soft to afford foothold for the piles they were mortised into a framework of tree trunks placed horizontally on the bottom of the lake. On the other hand, when the bottom was rocky so that the piles could not be driven, they were steadied at their bases by being enveloped in a mound of loose stones, in the manner in which the foundations of piers and breakwaters are now constructed. In cases where piles have not been used, as at Niederwil and Wauwyl, the substructure is a mass of fascines or faggots laid parallel and crosswise upon one another with intervening layers of brushwood or of clay and gravel, a few piles here and there being fixed throughout the mass to serve as guides or stays. At Niederwil the platform was formed of split boards, many of which were 2 ft. broad and 2 or 3 in. in thickness.
On these substructures were the huts composing the settlement; for the peculiarity of these lake dwellings is that they were pile villages, or clusters of huts occupying a common platform. The huts themselves were quadrilateral in form. The size of each dwelling is in some cases marked by boards resting edgeways on the platform, like the skirting boards over the flooring of the rooms in a modern house. The walls, which were supported by posts, or by piles of greater length, were formed of wattle-work, coated with clay. The floors were of clay, and in each floor there was a hearth constructed of flat slabs of stone. The roofs were thatched with bark, straw, reeds or rushes. As the superstructures are mostly gone, there is no evidence as to the position and form of the doorways, or the size, number and position of the windows, if there were any. In one case, at Schussenried, the house, which was of an oblong quadrangular form, about 33 by 23 ft., was divided into two rooms by a partition. The outer room, which was the smaller of the two, was entered by a doorway 3 ft. in width facing the south. The access to the inner room was by a similar door through the partition. The walls were formed of split tree-trunks set upright and plastered with clay; and the flooring of similar timbers bedded in clay. In other cases the remains of the gangways or bridges connecting the settlements with the shore have been discovered, but often the village appears to have been accessible only by canoes. Several of these single-tree canoes have been found, one of which is 43 ft. in length and 4 ft. 4 in. in its greatest width. It is impossible to estimate with any degree of certainty the number of separate dwellings of which any of these villages may have consisted, but at Niederwil they stood almost contiguously on the platform, the space between them not exceeding 3 ft. in width. The size of the huts also varied considerably. At Niederwil they were 20 ft. long and 12 ft. wide, while at Robenhausen they were about 27 ft. long by about 22 ft. wide.
The character of the relics shows that in some cases the settlements have been the dwellings of a people using no materials but stone, bone and wood for their implements, ornaments and weapons; in others, of a people using bronze as well as stone and bone; and in others again the occasional use of iron is disclosed. But, though the character of the relics is thus changed, there is no corresponding change in the construction and arrangements of the dwellings. The settlement in the Lake of Moosseedorf, near Bern, affords the most perfect example of a lake dwelling of the Stone age. It was a parallelogram 70 ft. long by 50 ft. wide, supported on piles, and having a gangway built on faggots connecting it with the land. The superstructure had been destroyed by fire. The implements found in the relic bed under it were axe-heads of stone, with their haftings of stag’s horn and wood; a flint saw, set in a handle of fir wood and fastened with asphalt; flint flakes and arrow-heads; harpoons of stag’s horn with barbs; awls, needles, chisels, fish-hooks and other implements of bone; a comb of yew wood 5 in. long; and a skate made out of the leg bone of a horse. The pottery consisted chiefly of roughly-made vessels, some of which were of large size, others had holes under the rims for suspension, and many were covered with soot, the result of their use as culinary vessels. Burnt wheat, barley and linseed, with many varieties of seeds and fruits, were plentifully mingled with the bones of the stag, the ox, the swine, the sheep and the goat, representing the ordinary food of the inhabitants, while remains of the beaver, the fox, the hare, the dog, the bear, the horse, the elk and the bison were also found.
The settlement of Robenhausen, in the moor which was formerly the bed of the ancient Lake of Pfäffikon, seems to have continued in occupation after the introduction of bronze. The site covers nearly 3 acres, and is estimated to have contained 100,000 piles. In some parts three distinct successions of inhabited platforms have been traced. The first had been destroyed by fire. It is represented at the bottom of the lake by a layer of charcoal mixed with implements of stone and bone and other relics highly carbonized. The second is represented above the bottom by a series of piles with burnt heads, and in the bottom by a layer of charcoal mixed with corn, apples, cloth, bones, pottery and implements of stone and bone, separated from the first layer of charcoal by 3 ft. of peaty sediment intermixed with relics of the occupation of the platform. The piles of the third settlement do not reach down to the shell marl, but are fixed in the layers representing the first and second settlements. They are formed of split oak trunks, while those of the two first settlements are round stems chiefly of soft wood. The huts of this last settlement appear to have had cattle stalls between them, the droppings and litter forming heaps at the lake bottom. The bones of the animals consumed as food at this station were found in such numbers that 5 tons were collected in the construction of a watercourse which crossed the site. Among the wooden objects recovered from the relic beds were tubs, plates, ladles and spoons, a flail for threshing corn, a last for stretching shoes of hide, celt handles, clubs, long-bows of yew, floats and implements of fishing and a dug-out canoe 12 ft. long. No spindle-whorls were found, but there were many varieties of cloth, platted and woven, bundles of yarn and balls of string. Among the tools of bone and stag’s horn were awls, needles, harpoons, scraping tools and haftings for stone axe-heads. The implements of stone were chiefly axe-heads and arrow-heads. Of clay and earthenware there were many varieties of domestic dishes, cups and pipkins, and crucibles or melting pots made of clay and horse dung and still retaining the drossy coating of the melted bronze.
The settlement of Auvernier in the Lake of Neuchâtel is one of the richest and most considerable stations of the Bronze age. It has yielded four bronze swords, ten socketed spear-heads, forty celts or axe-heads and sickles, fifty knives, twenty socketed chisels, four hammers and an anvil, sixty rings for the arms and legs, several highly ornate torques or twisted neck rings, and upwards of two hundred hair pins of various sizes up to 16 in. in length, some having spherical heads in which plates of gold were set. Moulds for sickles, lance-heads and bracelets were found cut in stone or made in baked clay. From four to five hundred vessels of pottery finely made and elegantly shaped are indicated by the fragments recovered from the relic bed. The Lac de Bourget, in Savoy, has eight settlements, all of the Bronze age. These have yielded upwards of 4000 implements, weapons and ornaments of bronze, among which were a large proportion of moulds and founders’ materials. A few stone implements suggest the transition from stone to bronze; and the occasional occurrence of iron weapons and pottery of Gallo-Roman origin indicates the survival of some of the settlements to Roman times.
The relative antiquity of the earlier settlements of the Stone and Bronze ages is not capable of being deduced from existing evidence. “We may venture to place them,” says Dr F. Keller, “in an age when iron and bronze had been long known, but had not come into our districts in such plenty as to be used for the common purposes of household life, at a time when amber had already taken its place as an ornament and had become an object of traffic.” It is now considered that the people who erected the lake dwellings of Central Europe were also the people who were spread over the mainland. The forms and the ornamentation of the implements and weapons of stone and bronze found in the lake dwellings are the same as those of the implements and weapons in these materials found in the soil of the adjacent regions, and both groups must therefore be ascribed to the industry of one and the same people. Whether dwelling on the land or dwelling in the lake, they have exhibited so many indications of capacity, intelligence, industry and social organization that they cannot be considered as presenting, even in their Stone age, a very low condition of culture or civilization. Their axes were made of tough stones, sawn from the block and ground to the fitting shape. They were fixed by the butt in a socket of stag’s horn, mortised into a handle of wood. Their knives and saws of flint were mounted in wooden handles and fixed with asphalt. They made and used an endless variety of bone tools. Their pottery, though roughly finished, is well made, the vessels often of large size and capable of standing the fire as cooking utensils. For domestic dishes they also made wooden tubs, plates, spoons, ladles and the like. The industries of spinning and weaving were largely practised. They made nets and fishing lines, and used canoes. They practised agriculture, cultivating several varieties of wheat and barley, besides millet and flax. They kept horses, cattle, sheep, goats and swine. Their clothing was partly of linen and partly of woollen fabrics and the skins of their beasts. Their food was nutritious and varied, their dwellings neither unhealthy nor incommodious. They lived in the security and comfort obtained by social organization, and were apparently intelligent, industrious and progressive communities.
There is no indication of an abrupt change from the use of stone to the use of metal such as might have occurred had the knowledge of copper and bronze, and the methods of working them, been introduced through the conquest of the original inhabitants by an alien race of superior culture and civilization. The improved cultural conditions become apparent in the multiplication of the varieties of tools, weapons and ornaments made possible by the more adaptable qualities of the new material; and that the development of the Bronze age culture in the lake dwellings followed the same course as in the surrounding regions where the people dwelt on the dry land is evident from the correspondence of the types of implements, weapons, ornaments and utensils common to both these conditions of life.
Other classes of prehistoric pile-structures akin to the lake dwellings are the Terremare of Italy and the Terpen of Holland. Both of these are settlements of wooden huts erected on piles, not over the water, but on flat land subject to inundations. The terremare (so named from the marly soil of which they are composed) appear as mounds, sometimes of very considerable extent, which when dug into disclose the remains and relic beds of the ancient settlements. They are most abundant in the plains of northern Italy traversed by the Po and its tributaries, though similar constructions have been found in Hungary in the valley of the Theiss. These pile-villages were often surrounded by an earthen rampart within which the huts were erected in more or less regular order. Many of them present evidence of having been more than once destroyed by fire and reconstructed, while others show one or more reconstructions at higher levels on the same site. The contents of the relic beds indicate that they belong for the most part to the age of bronze, although in some cases they may be referred to the latter part of the Stone age. Their inhabitants practised agriculture and kept the common domestic animals, while their tools, weapons and ornaments were mainly of similar character to those of the contemporary lake dwellers of the adjoining regions. Some of the Italian terremare show quadrangular constructions made like the modern log houses, of undressed tree trunks superposed longitudinally and overlapping at the ends, as at Castione in the province of Parma. A similar mode of construction is found in the pile-village on the banks of the Save, near Donja Dolina in Bosnia, described in 1904 by Dr Truhelka. Here the larger houses had platforms in front of them forming terraces at different levels descending towards the river. There was a cemetery adjacent to the village in which both unburnt and cremated interments occurred, the former predominating. From the general character of the relics this settlement appeared to belong to the early Iron age. The Terpen of Holland appear as mounds somewhat similar to those of the terremare, and were also pile structures, on low or marshy lands subject to inundations from the sea. Unlike the terremare and the lake dwellings they donot seem to belong to the prehistoric ages, but yield indications of occupation in post-Roman and medieval times.